Notes and Editorial Reviews

The Dresdeners are all business with the ?Dumky,? very fast and very slow, but rather cold and unfeeling compared to the recent Koch disc by theRead more Weilerstein Trio. This performance is accurate and honest, and Kai Vogler realizes some Gypsy-violin moments more clearly than did Donald Weilerstein, but nothing here matches the eloquence of Alisa Weilerstein?s cello. As with many other performances of the ?Dumky,? I find my interest drifting off.

On the other hand, when the Dresden Trio splits up for Janá?ek, both the Fairy Tale (?Pohádka?) for cello and piano and the Sonata for violin and piano are played with great feeling, capturing the fascinating essence that is Janá?ek. How many times have you thought: ?this could be by no other composer.? The insistent, repetitive rhythms and pungent harmonies are always unmistakable, the grip in which they hold us as mysterious as it is irresistible. I suspect it must be the same for performers, who so often succeed in his music whether or not they do so elsewhere.

Josef Suk?s Elegy is especially winning in this performance, which is filled with all the emotion so lacking in the Dresden Trio?s Dvo?ák. Vogler is again the star of the show; his violin-playing from 3:08 is mesmerizing. The notes to this disc place composition of the Elegy in 1910, well after the deaths of Suk?s wife and father-in-law ( Dvo?ák), but that was merely the arrangement for piano trio of a work written in 1902, when both were still alive. Romantic pathos was always a hallmark of Suk?s music, whereas tragedy and toughness came later. I don?t believe I?ve ever heard the original, for violin, cello, harmonium, harp, and string quartet; it sounds fascinating. There has been at least one recording, in Supraphon?s collection of the complete chamber music.